Some questions

[Ridgeback825]

So I put 8 eggs in my small brooder and I have a few questions:
1) I washed three of them, before reading it’s a bad thing, is there any chance it will be ok?
2) how am I supposed to maintain humidity of 55%?
3) if my chicks hatched at two distinct different colours, can I assume they’re sex links?
4) is it ok if I placed eggs which weigh differently together?

It’s my second time hatching eggs, so thanks for your answers!

1. I have washed eggs for hatching in a peroxide solution like the mega hatcheries do, and set poop covered eggs as well, with no discernable difference in hatch rates. I believe nature knows best here but also believe that the washing is not detrimental when done with a sterilizing solution.
2. Humidity over a incubation determines the balance of the amount of moisture loss inside the egg and determines how large the air cell gets. This is a long term thing over the entire incubation and is not nearly as important as some make it out to be.
3. Different chick colors can mean sex but only on certain breeds.
4. Hatching eggs of different weights is fine. You will just notice that oddities like fairy eggs, tiny ones, will have a lower success rate. I have hatched big round ones, smaller ones and pointy ones with success. The biggest difference when mixing eggs it the incubation period from different species of birds.

Best of luck and I will warn you that this is addictive!

 

[Ridgerunner]

The problem is that there are two ways to make a solid white chicken like your leghorns. One is Dominant White. Dominant White changes any feather that would normally be black to white so if they are white because of Dominant White then they are black underneath. Since Black is dominant over Red, all the chicks should be white.

Recessive White changes any feather white, so you have no idea what is hiding under it. But since it is a recessive gene it has to pair up at the gene pair to have an effect. Since your RIR does not have that gene it cannot pair up so there is no telling what color the chicks will be. Black is somewhat common. The barring pattern is sometimes there. But it could be about anything.

I'm afraid you will have to wait and see.

1. I have washed eggs for hatching in a peroxide solution like the mega hatcheries do, and set poop covered eggs as well, with no discernable difference in hatch rates. I believe nature knows best here but also believe that the washing is not detrimental when done with a sterilizing solution.

There is a little more to this. The hatcheries do wash the eggs in a sterilizing solution but they go beyond that. They go to great pains to sterilize the environment, not only sterilizing the equipment but fumigating the area. They practice good biosecurity, trying hard to keep any workers from bringing bacteria into the incubating and hatching rooms.

I don't fumigate the room the incubator is in and I don't carefully filter the air that goes onto it to remove any contaminants. I do try to keep the bloom intact, sterilize the incubator before I use it, and keep things as clean as I reasonably can.

 

[Ridgeback825]

Agreed! I do the same! I always tend to lean toward "nature knows best" as that's they way they were masterfully created until I'm proven wrong. I even read a study where the sterilization process even showed results of getting rid of harmful infections inside the egg. These mega hatcheries patient their processes and keep it secret, which stinks for the little guy.

 

[Paz]

Thanks

 

[Paz]

I’m updating that all of the eggs have fetuses inside them

 

[Paz]

Now I’m updating that 5 have hatched. Three are yellow with spots, two are yellow with brown backs (which is strange because their mom is black and she NEVER had yellow chicks).